After rumours and media reports that ride share major Uber Technologies may exit the online food order delivery business in India, a company executive has now told Economic Times that it would want to stay put in the business and even expand Uber Eats to include delivery of grocery and fresh foods, like vegetables and fruits.
There is no denying that the US giant tried selling the food delivery arm in India as it has done in some of the other markets it had launched it in. However, the kind of valuation acceptable to the two major suitors, Swiggy and Zomato did not go well with the Uber management and their decision to continue the business may be the result of this. Uber sees a lot of potential in the market and though it is conscious of the fact that it ranks much lower when compared to the top two, it does not feel it should get out of this business.
Uber has consolidated all its India operations under a separate entity, Uber India Systems and that includes the food delivery business as well. Despite a couple of key executives at senior levels quitting the company, Uber Eats appears to have grown as a business. Manik Gupta, the Chief Product Officer at Uber goes on to confirm that they do intend on entering the grocery delivery business. If they do, Uber will directly compete with two other American giants, Amazon and Flipkart, who are also into the grocery business and may step on the gas in the weeks and months ahead.
There are a couple of home-grown players like BigBasket and Grofers already established and growing. A market so vast as India does offer the opportunity for multiple players in each segment to do business.
Uber Technologies at the global level has had its setbacks with its stock being listed and traded at values below the one at which it floated its IPO. The losses are mounting at $5.1 billion on a revenue level of $3.16 billion.